


written in the stars

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Castiel/Dean Winchester, Not Really Any Hunting Things, Sappy Ending, Saving People Cuddling Things The Sabriel Business, Speeches, Stars, just cuddles, not officially but sam rants a bit, saving people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 16:52:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6574309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel, trapped in Heaven, is getting messages to Sam Winchester the only way he knows how - by rearranging the stars into words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	written in the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trustyourdragons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trustyourdragons/gifts).



> Third birthday fic of three for the beautiful, not at all cool and aloof Abbie (synergysam on tumblr) although there will still be a box showing up on your doorstep soon too - fingers crossed ;)
> 
> This was kind of an experiment because it COULD have been a long fic with a fuckton of plot and detailed descriptions of Heaven and Metatron's plans but instead it's... well, it's fluffy hurt/comfort and cuddles. Because that's what I like to write! But considering the idea came from a 400 word ficlet I wrote for tumblr's five minute ficlet challenge, it's still, technically, an expanded version. Kind of? >.>

"The stars are beautiful tonight."

Sam smiled, raising his beer bottle to his lips and taking another gulp. He leaned back against the cool metal of the Impala, his head tilted up, just staring at the sky, a small smile on his face.

"Dude, that's really gay," Dean snorted from next to him.

Sam turned to stare at his brother, his face wrinkling into a frown. "Dean, you're literally dating Cas. Who is male, or who at the very least has a male vessel. I hardly think you're in the right place to call me gay."

"I'm bisexual, Sammy," Dean said with a longsuffering sigh. "Which means I'm very manly and I never make comments about things looking beautiful."

"I don't think that's what it means-- nevermind," Sam shook his head, deciding not to comment on the fact that he had definitely heard Dean call Castiel's eyes beautiful on five separate occasions in the past week. Instead, he turned his eyes back to the sky.

And squinted.

And looked a little closer.

Something was different tonight.

Over the years he'd been travelling around in the Impala with Dean, Sam had been in this exact situation more times than he cared to think about. Every few days it was the two of them, in between cases, just sitting outside getting a drink and a few breaths of fresh air, occasionally exchanging words but mostly just sitting in comfortable silence. And Sam thought that in all that time, he'd got to know the stars pretty well. He knew the different constellations, the shapes he was supposed to see, which ones were brighter and which ones sometimes faded out of view and which were easier to see depending on the time of year and which were actually just a helicopter flying past in the night sky.

And in all his years staring at the sky and memorizing the stars, he had never once seen the word HELP so clearly outlined by a set of stars that blazed brighter than all the rest.

"Dean, do you see that?" he murmured.

Dean finished his beer and jumped down off the hood. "Alright, enough of that, we should get driving if we want to be home to the bunker by the time morning rush hour hits. Wait, do I see what?"

"It doesn't matter," Sam shrugged, getting down too and climbing back into the passenger seat.

Dean shrugged, and revved up the engine, blasting Bon Jovi at top volume as the two of them sped back towards Kansas.

Sam tried to get involved in Dean's singalong, but his mind kept flitting back to the stars. What the hell had been going on there? There was no way he had made that up, and yet... there was no possible way it could be real, either. The stars couldn't just move. There was no creature on Earth powerful enough for that.

\--

The next time Sam took note of the stars, they looked normal. Over the few days following that case, he started to assume that he'd hallucinated the whole thing, lack of sleep and a slight crash after the adrenaline of hunting a vampire pack had dissipated causing him to see strange things that didn't exist. So he moved on, getting back into researching in the bunker, looking for a new case he and Dean might be able to take on.

Sam was engrossed in an old book he'd found tucked in the back of the library dealing with lore on the earliest witches when he heard it. Loud noises coming from Dean and Cas' room. Not even sex noises, he'd learned to tune those out ages ago, but-

"Who's the prettiest angel? Yes, you, Cas, you're the prettiest angel!"

"Dean, my Grace is almost completely gone. I cannot be the prettiest angel, as I am believe I am no longer any kind of angel."

"I don't care, baby, you're always going to be the prettiest angel to me!"

Sam groaned, slamming his head down onto his book, then immediately cursing himself because this was an old book and he didn't want to damage it or dislodge any of the pages. He got up, carefully marking his place, then stalked outside. He was so done. Sometimes the two of them did it in the car when he couldn't escape and it was enough to make him want to throw up out of the window. At least right now he could go outside.

He flopped down onto the cold, dewy grass, staring up at the sky. For a moment he saw it without really seeing, and then his eyes focused, and it was impossible for him to miss the words HELP ME SAM traced in tiny bright stars against the blackness.

Sam. This message was meant for him. Someone powerful enough to move the stars was asking him for help.

This was very definitely not a good sign.

His first instinct was to dash back into the bunker and call on Dean to see what he thought about all this, even if it would mean interrupting sickeningly sweet eskimo kisses between Dean and Cas or something. And he'd have done it in a heartbeat if the message had read HELP ME SAM AND DEAN. 

But it didn't. The message was for him, and him alone. And it was a puzzle he had to figure out on his own.

He hauled himself up from his spot on the grass and headed back into the bunker. It was time to start doing some research, even if he had to put earplugs in to accomplish it.

\--

A solid week of research turned up nothing. The problem was that the stars had very little to do with supernatural creatures in general. Sam and Dean didn't bother with aliens - if they existed, they were too far away to cause any real damage, and there were far more pressing threats closer to home. Sam had dealt with creatures that could fly before, but the stars were a whole other level.

On the seventh day of Sam's solitary confinement, Dean dropped into the chair opposite him.

"Everything alright, Sammy? You've been hidden away in the library all week, even more than you usually are."

Sam shrugged. "Just looking up regular case stuff, you know how it is," he deflected.

"Yeah, well, I gotta run some errands, so you should come to the store with me. You've barely moved."

"Dean, I'm busy, I don't have time for any of your pie supply excursions," Sam scolded.

Dean rolled his eyes. "You need some fresh air. Come on. I'm not taking no for an answer."

Sam thought that Dean would probably physically drag him away if he refused, and he didn't want any of the books to get hurt, so he followed him out to the car. Amazingly, even though he'd thought of nothing else but the strange patterns in the sky while he was down in the windowless library, he didn't even realize what he was doing as he tilted his head back to grab a breath of fresh air.

He froze.

The words were still there, but they had changed. And from reading the new words, Sam knew immediately just who had sent them, the information coming to him in a rush of power that left him physically gasping for air, his vision swimming around him, nothing clear in his mind except for the fixed points of light up ahead that spelled out I LOVE YOU SAM.

There was definitely only one person in the world who would make the sky say that.

"Dean. Change of plans," he called out, and Dean must have heard the urgency in his voice, because he came running over to Sam's side.

"What's the matter?" he asked, casting his gaze all around their surroundings, but never once looking up, where he really should have been focusing. "Is something here? Are we safe?"

Sam took a deep breath, crossing his fingers behind his back, hoping Dean wasn't going to kill him.

"We are. Gabriel's not."

\--

"Sam, why would I give a fuck about Gabriel? He's killed me more times than everyone and everything else in the world put together, and that's a fucking tall order, in case you've forgotten! You know how much of a fan he is of 'just deserts!' Maybe he's getting his for once!"

Sam shook his head. "You don't understand."

"Understand what? He's caused nothing but trouble for us! I mean, sure, that thing he did helping us stop the apocalypse was pretty cool, but Sam, I had to sit through a porn video of him!"

"Yeah, that was... that was something," Sam chuckled, his mind flooded with memories he'd spent a very long time trying to hold back. 

"Something? Yeah, that's one way of putting it. I don't give a shit what kind of trouble he's in. It'd be like trying to save Lucifer or something."

"It's not like that," Sam replied, staying calm in the face of Dean's oblivious anger. "I know he's done some shit in the past. But he's changed."

"And even if I did want to save him, which I don't, at all, I don't know where the hell I'd find the guy! Any leads on that, Research King?"

Sam shook his head. "Nothing yet, but I'll figure it out. I will."

"And you know he's lied to us before, right? So this is all just some haphazard plan to save some runaway murderous archangel, when you don't know where he is and you can't even be sure he's in danger?"

When Dean put it like that, it all sounded pretty bad, but Sam knew better. Because Dean didn't know the whole story. He hadn't been there in the Elysian Fields hotel when Gabriel had come to find Sam and dragged him to his room. Dean hadn't seen Gabriel cry as he told Sam he was sorry. Dean hadn't seen Gabriel's words cut off midsentence as he gave up on his apology and instead tugged Sam in for a kiss that had lasted far longer than either of them intended. And Dean definitely hadn't been there for the realization that after millions of years of life and potentially millions of kisses, Sam had been Gabriel's last ever kiss.

"Yeah, but this isn't another trick! It's not his style, if he was going to play a trick he'd never let us know it was him this early on, you know that!"

Dean folded his arms as though he'd already won this argument. "Well, it doesn't matter, because you've still got no clue where the dude's hiding! Can't do anything until you figure that out."

There was a shuffling in the doorway, and the two of them turned to see Castiel, looking more sheepish than he had in years.

"I know where he is."

\--

"So, you're telling me that I have to go to Heaven and fight Metatron to save a guy who in my opinion is better off dead."

Sam and Castiel looked at each other. 

"Yes," Castiel replied, at the exact same moment that Sam replied, "No."

Dean looked frantically from one to the other, his face kind of entertaining, caught as he was between the two most important people to him. "Which is it?"

Sam took a deep breath. "You don't have to go anywhere or fight anyone. I'm the one who Gabriel wrote messages to so I'm the one who should be saving him. I'd just appreciate your help coming up with a plan."

Cas nodded.

Dean sighed, rolling his eyes. He still didn't look pleased, but if both Sam and Cas were in agreement on something, that was just about enough for him to play along. "Well how's the asshole been getting in contact until now? Can you get a message to him?"

Sam considered. He supposed Dean might actually have a point. "I... okay, I don't know if this is going to work. But I have an idea."

Sam motioned for the other two to follow him, and they all headed outside, Sam hopping up onto a brick wall not far away from the bunker, swinging his legs. From up here he had the best possible view of the sky all around. 

Castiel jumped onto the wall next to Sam, and offered his hand to Dean to pull him up too. Dean scowled as though he still wasn't happy with this whole situation, but Sam ignored him, gesturing for the two of them to quieten down as he cast his eyes upwards and called,

"Gabriel, I don't know if you can hear me right now. I don't know if your ears are tuned in to the angel radio or to prayers or... maybe even just to me. But... I know the messages are from you. And I want to help you, we all do. We just don't know how. So, if you could give me a hand, some kind of guidance, I'd appreciate that."

And then he waited.

\--

"Dude. It's fucking cold out here. He's not replying. Can we just go inside?"

Dean was complaining like a small child, 

Sam turned to make sure that Dean and Cas made it safely inside, and as soon as he'd confirmed that they had, he looked back at the sky - and there was a new message there, the words possibly even larger than they had been before.

FOLLOW THE STARS.

Sam wondered to himself if Gabriel had been waiting until he was alone to write that.

He glanced around again, looking for some kind of arrow or some other pattern in the stars indicating what direction he should go in. Because just FOLLOW THE STARS on its own was pretty damn cryptic, wasn't it? Sam highly doubted that Gabriel was in space, which meant that he couldn't actually be up-

_Oh._

Of course.

Sam was an idiot, he really was. He supposed he'd just never associated Gabriel with heaven before now - Gabriel wasn't quite fallen, but he was nothing like the other angels. He didn't follow the rules or act like an angel or even call himself one and Sam knew that he would do whatever it took to stay as far away from Heaven as possible. Which, Sam supposed, was exactly why Metatron would trap him there if he didn't want him to escape...

Shit. Gabriel was in even more danger than he'd originally realized.

Sam took off towards the bunker at a run, ready to recruit Cas to get him up to Heaven before the stars faded into the daylight.

\--

"Gabriel, fuck, Gabriel, you're here, it's actually you, I've got you," Sam babbled, scooping Gabriel up in his arms and pressing their foreheads together. "It's okay, I'm taking you home now, I know you probably can't hear me, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna keep talking to you all the time, just cause I can, just in case this is getting through to you somehow... I just want you to know I'm here, yeah?"

He did as he promised, and he barely shut up until the four of them were safely locked away in the bunker. "Alright, I'm gonna let you get some rest, gonna give you your own room..."

Sam laid Gabriel down on the bed in one of the spare bedrooms, and he knew Gabriel was tiny, he'd always known it, but somehow the contrast of the tiny archangel in the huge king sized bed wasn't something he'd quite been prepared for. "God, Gabriel, you're so small," he blurted, because the sight of him there was enough to break Sam's heart.

Gabriel cracked one eye open.

"What the fuck did you just say?"

Sam slapped a hand to his own forehead. "Shit. Of all the things. I said so many nice things to you on the way back here, and the first thing you hear when you wake up is me calling you small?"

"I'll have you know that this is a flesh vessel and that in actual fact, as an archangel, I am larger than almost any other being in Heaven," Gabriel croaked.

Sam had been planning on leaving Gabriel alone, but apparently his legs had other ideas. He hoisted himself up onto the bed and curled up around Gabriel. "No, you're tiny and I'm going to take care of you right now."

Gabriel let out a soft, pained moan and burrowed his head into Sam's chest.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're safe now, nobody's gonna find you here, nobody who you don't want finding you anyway. How long's he been keeping you there, Gabriel? Tell me."

Gabriel shook his head, wrapping an arm around Sam's waist and throwing one of his legs over Sam's, seemingly trying to attach himself to Sam like an octopus. "Talking... no."

"If you let me go then I can go get you some water or something. Might make the talking easier."

"Moving... no."

Sam had to laugh. There was just no other reaction to the archangel's stubbornness.

"Fine, fine," Sam smiled. "No talking, no moving, I get how it is. So I guess I'll have to do the talking, then. Those messages you sent me."

Gabriel stiffened in Sam's arms.

"First you sent 'Help.' Which makes sense. Because you needed help."

Gabriel's fingers tightened in Sam's shirt, clinging, and it was clear he knew where Sam was going with this.

"And then you sent 'Help me Sam.' Which made sense too, in a way. Cause I was probably one of the people most likely to be able to help."

"I'm sorry, Sam, I'm sorry," Gabriel started mumbling, before Sam had even moved onto the final message.

"And then you sent 'I love you, Sam.' Which is what made me figure out it was you."

Gabriel went quiet, squeezing his eyes tight shut, trying to hide his face.

"But did you write that as a clue? So that I'd know it was you? Or did you write it... because you meant it?"

There was a long silence. Sam didn't try to force any answers out of Gabriel, but he kept his eyes fixed on him, refusing to take the question back.

Finally, Gabriel spoke.

"Alright, Sam, listen up. When I first met you, I was... honestly, I was a homicidal maniac who'd isolated himself off from the entire world because I was still throwing a tantrum over the fact that a goddess had dumped me. It wasn't a great time for me.

But then you showed up, and you were different to anyone else I knew. Because I saw you as an equal. I didn't want to play my tricks or to get one over on you. I just wanted to exist with you, simply, without any kind of competition. It scared me and sometimes I acted crazy towards you because, because I just didn't know how else to deal with what I wanted. And for a long time I couldn't make sense of how I felt. And by the time I did it was far too late, and I'd already messed things up with you to the point that you could never forgive me, so I did the next best thing. I sacrificed myself so that I could help stop the apocalypse, because the only alternative was to go on being a whiny bastard who played elaborate tricks, just trying to get you to notice me. And I didn't expect to come back to life after that, that was never the plan! I was done. I'd done everything I could to save Sam Winchester, and that was the only purpose that ever mattered! But then I found myself alive again, if you can call it that, trapped up in Heaven. And... I still felt guilty.

And I wanted to say all this in the stars. I really did. I didn't need to be rescued, I definitely didn't deserve to be rescued, but I knew that there were too many words I had to say to you. And that the only way I'd ever have a chance to say them would be if I got to see you in person, even just one more time. So that's why I called for you like I did. And now you know everything. And you can kick me out or kill me or send me back to Metatron if you want. But you know everything. That's good enough for me, you know?"

Sam stared. It didn't really answer his question, but at the same time, it completely did.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

Again, Gabriel answered without really answering.

"I guess I see myself as some kind of vengeful spirit. Cause ghosts, they come back because they have unfinished business in the world, someone they need to kill, and when they've done that, they're able to move on. Well, I had unfinished business too. Only mine was just telling you everything that you meant to me. And now I've done that. And it's time for me to go."

Gabriel pushed himself up from the bed, arms that seemed to be smaller and skinnier than they had last time Sam had known Gabriel, and he missed the slight chub that Gabriel had in the past. Sam could see how much effort it took Gabriel just to make a simple move like that, and he almost didn't want to grab him, scared of breaking him further, but he couldn't just let him go.

He scooted along the bed to wrap his arms around Gabriel's middle, and although Gabriel protested for a moment, he couldn't get free, so he slumped back down onto the mattress. There was a physical pain in his chest from the memory of a Gabriel who was filled with so much raw power that he could create entire parallel universes from thin air. Now he couldn't even escape a hug.

Sam brushed the hair out of Gabriel's face, weaving it between his fingers. "You've only just got here. You're sick. You need to rest. You're not going anywhere."

Gabriel shrugged, his face pale and broken. "Don't want to be a burden."

Sam sighed, sitting up and propping himself up on some pillows, then tugging Gabriel into his lap. This was going to take a while.

"We didn't have enough time together the first time. You're an archangel. Among other things. You're infinitely more complex than any human I've ever met and even people I can't always figure out. Jess and I were together for two years and I still learned new things about her every day. Dean... hell, I've known Dean my entire life and he's still a mystery. You think that after just a few short years, I was anywhere near close to being done with you? Gabriel, I could never leave your side every day for the rest of my life, and I suspect that even on my deathbed I'd be hanging onto your every word, and everything you said to me would still be a surprise. And I kind of want that. I think this place could use a new face. I'm not just telling you you should stick around here because I think it's the right thing to do, or because I'd feel guilty if you left and then got hurt or something. I want you here. You, specifically. Because I know that I will never stop being fascinated by you, and I still wouldn't, even if I were to live forever with you."

He began to rub Gabriel's back, right in the middle where he assumed that Gabriel's wings would be, if he could see them. Gabriel purred softly and leaned back into him, closing his eyes and resting his head on Sam's shoulder. He didn't say anything. Sam had a sneaking suspicion that he was scared about what he might say if he opened his mouth.

"I did a lot of research into angel mythology, you know. Way back when Cas first showed up and we had to deal with the Apocalypse. They call Lucifer the light-bringer."

Gabriel frowned. "Yeah, I know."

"I never understood why."

"It's because-" Gabriel started to explain, but Sam held up a hand to cut him off.

"Nope. It was a rhetorical question. I always thought they should have called you the light-bringer instead. Because you're made of pure sunlight, when you're in a room, everything is bigger and brighter and clearer. I'm not saying that's always a good thing. Sometimes it can be the worst thing ever, like when I'm dealing with my brother fucking dying on me every single day and I can't get you out of my head because you're so bright that it hurts my fucking eyes and I have to look away. But then there's other times, like right now, when you're lying here and I can just see this soft glow coming out of you and it's so beautiful, Gabriel, it really is. And I could make this really, really cheesy and say that you bring light into my life. I'm not yet that bad, although I suppose you quite literally did bring light when you were moving the stars like that, but I just-"

Sam broke off when he saw the mischievous smirk spread across Gabriel's face. It was an incredibly familiar smirk, though it was one he hadn't seen for years.

"What?"

Gabriel blinked up at Sam with wide eyes, but Sam wasn't buying his innocent act for a minute.

"Look out the window, Sam."

Sam got up and walked over to the window, curious to see what the stars said that Gabriel couldn't. He pulled the curtains back. Stared out into the dark night sky surrounding the bunker. 

There, written in the stars, were the words THANK YOU SAMSTAR.

**Author's Note:**

> you might not be able to rearrange the stars but you COULD come talk to me at **casandsip.tumblr.com**


End file.
